Reconnecting America - conservatism in America; National Review Institute meeting - The Conservative Summit

National Review, March 29, 1993 by Pete duPont

Elections not only represent the aggregate voice of a democracy, they are also democracies' report cards. This year, by any objective measurement, conservatives failed - again.

The party of the conservatives received less than 40 per cent of the vote for President. True, Ross Perot attracted many conservatives. True, the Republican candidate was not our strongest advocate. But we lost the so-called people's house of the national legislature for the twentieth consecutive time. Most governors are not conservative. Most state legislatures are not. And what about local governments - cities and towns? Are we doing any better there? Hardly!

When it comes to politics, we are America's second team. We occasionally have brilliant games, we often have brilliant players, but day in, day out, season after season, we are not the champions.

The sad fact is that America is not as conservative as the American people, because our culture is not as conservative as our society, and our government is not as conservative as our voters. Our major challenge as citizens and as conservatives is to understand these disconnections, or we will never truly govern.

There are several possible explanations for our impotence. It is possible that our values are no longer broadly shared, or that conservative candidates are not effective in advocating our ideas. A third possibility is that American voters - mostly conservative, but proud of their pragmatism - fail to see the utility of conservative solutions because they are educated into a liberal understanding of the problems.

Let me offer an example. In the 1970s, when America was in dire need of a tax cut, our politicians avoided a broad tax-cutting program because they assumed that it was not what the voters wanted. But in 1980, when Jack Kemp and Ronald Reagan offered a tax cut as a national policy alternative, the voters not only embraced the idea, but elected virtually every politician in sight who could mouth the words, "Ten-ten-ten."

Fast-forward to the 1990s, and we can see history repeating itself. Our taxes are again too high and our politicians are far from leading a crusade to lower them. Have Americans come to believe that a greater tax burden is now a good idea? Have our politicians again failed to recognize the power of the conservative majority on this issue? Or is the majority sentiment for low taxes is being undermined by a misunderstanding about the burden and consequence of current taxes?

For years I have believed the American public was fully prepared to embrace conservative ideas that represented genuine change - lower tax rates, Social Security privatization, and school choice; an end to welfare and an end to farm subsidies. I believed our problem was not the receptivity of the buyers but the timidity of the sellers.

I still believe that, but I've also come to suspect that our vision is misperceived by its viewers. I fear that a majority of Americans now reject our ideas because their cultural lens provides a false perspective.

For example, Americans may fully understand that an end to farm subsidies is a good idea that would reduce costs and lower the deficit, but still refuse to support a change because they believe that most farmers are small, low-income entrepreneurs backed only by the labor of their families. They like the idea of school choice, but they fear that the neighborhood school will disappear and see no better option coming along in its place.

If the "kultursmog," as Bob Tyrrell calls it, is preventing Americans from; understanding either the nature of challenges as a country or the our solutions as conservatives, we face a crucial disconnection between our candidates and our between our government and our people, between our culture and our society. Until we repair it, the conservative losing streak will continue to lengthen.

One place to begin to explore the disconnections is to ask which, if any, of our ideas are enthusiastically understood and embraced by the majority. Which of our ideas can move people to vote for conservatives, move people to work in conservative campaigns, and move people to throw out entrenched liberal incumbents? Conversely, which of our ideas are right for America but not accepted by Americans?

As a starting point, we asked the participants in the Conservative Summit to indicate their estimate of public sentiment toward ten conservative policy propositions. We also asked to them to formulate additional propositions of their own, and to indicate their estimate of public support.

The Summiteers predicted strong support for only two conservative propositions - across-the-board tax cuts and deficit reduction through spending cuts. Both of these proposals have been vigorously advocated by conservative candidates and officeholders for nearly twenty years.

On the eight other propositions, from pro-life with regard to abortion, to pro-choice with regard to permitting people to create their own retirement nest eggs in place of Social Security, to asking the government to shrink its role in health care, the assembled conservatives saw the American public in opposition to our positions - sometimes overwhelmingly so. They pegged public sentiment at just about 50 per cent for the proposition that we spend enough on our schools, 44 per cent for a clear pro-life position on abortion, 42 per cent for choice in Social Security, and 32 per cent for the idea that health-care solutions will come with less rather than more government involvement.